Microsoft announced Cortana at Build and which got everybody excited and in all that excitement we missed one big thing, it’s not rolling out to all the countries even if the Windows Phone 8.1 gets rolled out to devices, which is in the coming few months, with Developer Preview going live on April 14th.

That started a rage among Windows Phone lovers and even though we hate MS releasing features like these slowly, here is why Cortana not coming so soon to all the countries.

What is Cortana ?

Coming from a fascinating background of Halo, Cortana resembles Artificial Intelligence which provides strategic intelligence to the hero, Master Chief in the game. Microsoft’s intention is quite similar here, with a simple goal, make Windows Phone as personal as possible. As Cortana uses Bing, Yelp, Foursquare and many such services as its backbone, it also gets into your inbox, your profile, Facebook, etc. (with your permission) to help you get information like flight details, traffic, important appointments and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX9P6skzZNU&feature=player_embedded

Now this isn’t a competition to Google OK or Apple’s Siri but about making Windows Phone smarter and do things people always wanted to do. Its your PERSONAL Digital Assistant.

So what makes Cortana a true personal assistant ?

There are two major things needed for Cortana to work correctly–speech recognition, language understanding and stream processing.

Speech Recognition:

So before we get a little deeper there, take an example of Xbox One which works based on speech recognition and it works in US but not so well in other countries. It follows the same with Cortana. Microsoft needs to get it perfectly done in US because most of the services are there to help it out and experiment to an extreme level.

The next market for Microsoft is UK and China. Those who are wondering why China? It’s because China is the biggest user base for mobile users and there is no Google. If Microsoft can get Cortana working there perfectly it will boost up a huge market for Windows Phone.

Language understanding:

It’s probably the most difficult part because every language is so different. You could be saying the same thing in many different ways and if a personal assistant needs to understand it, it will have to figure out and keep them in mind to interpret them. Microsoft will have to run beta test in all the countries in phases to get this done, the right way.

Stream Processing:

This is where Bing Backbone along with other services roll in. After taking all the info from you and your daily activities, Bing uses its platform to figure out what could be next for you. This is where Bing also takes into third party services. So for example, in US it uses Yelp, which is a huge database to find almost anything. Right from best burger to most recommended cardiologist.

Now when this get to other countries, Microsoft needs to partner which such services in those countries so you can get the right details and experience when you start asking question or when Cortana starts recommending. So for India, Microsoft will have to partner with services like Zomato, Movie based services, Burrp and so on. This is not a simple job.

Here is a nice video, Bing Blog rolled out and you should take a look into.

So when is Cortana coming to all the Countries?

That said, Microsoft has officially confirmed in their post that “Cortana will launch shortly here in the U.S. first as a “beta,” and then will launch in the US, the U.K. and China in the second half of 2014 with other countries to follow afterwards into 2015.”

That’s pretty much a phased rollout and will take a year to complete. I am sure many are disappointed and everybody would have loved to have it at the same time. That said I believe Microsoft will roll out beta for this and during that time you may have your chance to try it early.